Follow JESUS!
Luke 9:57-62 “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘LORD, I will follow You wherever You go.’ And JESUS said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ Then He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ but he said, ‘LORD, let me first go and bury my father.’ JESUS said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and Preach The Kingdom of GOD.’ And another also said, ‘LORD, I will follow You but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.’ But JESUS said to him, ‘No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for The Kingdom of GOD.’”
To the first one who volunteered to follow JESUS, JESUS told him a little of what it would be like, there would be a cost in life to walk with JESUS; the Scriptures do not tell us if he decided to lay down his life to follow JESUS.
The second one, JESUS asked him to be a disciple, but he made an excuse. The Scriptures do not tell us if his father was at that time dead, or just old and dying. JESUS told him to lay down his life for the Kingdom of GOD and let the dead (those who reject JESUS) bury themselves. We are not told if the man laid down his life to follow JESUS.
The third man said he would follow JESUS but he wanted to go and tell his family what he was doing. JESUS told him he must not look back at his old life but lay down his life for The Kingdom of GOD. The Scriptures do not tell us if he followed JESUS.
JESUS says to us all, “No one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of GOD.” He is upfront in The Gospels telling us there is a cost to follow Him; loss, rejection, persecution, trials and tribulations. He also tells us that we have to “lay down our life, take up our cross and follow (obey) Him (Mark 8:34-38).
Oswald Chambers says, “When once The call of GOD comes, begin to go and never stop going.”
“Seek First The Kingdom of GOD and His Righteousness and all these things will be added to you!” Matthew 6:33
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